(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multidimensional damping apparatus which can be applied to vibrationproof apparatuses for various objects such as vibrationproofing of pipings, and particularly to a multidimensional damping apparatus which utilizes a magnet spring mechanism.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
As damping apparatuses, various one-dimensional damping apparatuses using vibrationproof functioning materials such as a spring system such as a coil spring, an air spring, rubber, etc., a fluid system such as oil, water, air, etc., a magnet system and the like have been heretofore developed and used. For unidirectional vibrations, these conventional apparatuses exhibit the braking function according to the performance of the respective vibrationproof functioning materials to perform the function as a damper whereas for multidimensional vibrations, they cannot perform effective braking. For vibrationproofing of multidimensional vibration, there has been generally employed a method in which individual vibrationproof functioning materials are arranged in respective directions of X-Y-Z coordinate systems to individually brake vibration components in the respective directions. However, in this case, the method can response to every component of vibration but is difficult to effect a composite motion so as to be able to accurately correspond to the multidimensional vibration as the whole damping apparatus. A damping apparatus capable of accurately following the multidimensional vibration to effectively prevent the vibration has not yet been proposed.
The conventional damping apparatus is based on the one-dimensional braking as described above. An object to be vibrationproofed i& supported by a movable part of the damping apparatus, and when a vibration occurs, the apparatus follows the movement thereof to damp the vibration. Accordingly, there was a disadvantage in that in order to follow a fine vibration to exhibit the braking function, the damping apparatus is required to have a preciseness to an extent as so required, and accurate response is difficult to make and in addition manufacturing of apparatus is also difficult, resulting in a high cost. For example, in case of a magnet damper, in order to enhance the damping effect with respect to fine vibrations, a magnetic circuit section in which a damping force is generated by magnetic action of an eddy current and a flux has to be miniaturized, which involves a difficulty of working and rapidly increases the manufacturing cost. Various methods for enhancing the damping effect without miniaturizing the magnetic circuit section in the magnet damper have been heretofore proposed (for example, JPA 50-10934 and the like). However, these proposals are not different in a basical construction in which a movable part of the damper is mounted on an article which is an object-to be vibrationproofed, and therefore there is a limitation in their effect.
Furthermore, the conventional damping apparatus is designed selecting functional materials which effectively act on the basis of the magnitude of vibrations. It is difficult for such damping apparatus as described above to effectively vibrationproof vibrations having a wide range of amplitudes from a fine vibration to a large vibration.
In the conventional damping mechanism, since a damper directly moves in a vibrating direction, a restoring force corresponding to vibration energy is required. In a case where an object is heavy and large in amplitude, a large restoring force is required. For example, in case of a damping mechanism in which a heavy article is supported by vibrationproof rubber, when the amplitude exceeds a predetermined limit, the mechanism cannot follow it, failing to be restored automatically.